I would not have the love of lips and eyes,
The ancient ways of love:
But in my heart I built a Paradise,
A nest there for the dove.
I would not have the love of lips and eyes,
The ancient ways of love:
But in my heart I built a Paradise,
A nest there for the dove.
What is the love of shadowy lips
That know not what they seek or press,
From whom the lure for ever slips
And fails their phantom tenderness?
Though the dream of love may tire,
In the ages long agone
There were ruby hearts of fire-
Ah, the daughters of the dawn!
You and I have trod the backward way
To the happy heart of yesterday,
To the love we felt in ages past.
They fade in you; their lips are fain
To meet the old caress:
And all their love is mine again
As lip to lip we press.
That is the flame of love I send to you from afar:
Not a wafted kiss, hardly a whispered word,
But love itself that flies as a white-winged star.
What of all the heart to love?
When our glowing dreams were dead,
Ruined our heroic piles,
Something in your dark eyes said:
Think no more of love or smiles.
What outstretched love would meet them at the gate?
The waters lull me and the scent of many gardens, and I hear
Familiar voices, and the voice I love is whispering in my ear.
We must rise or we must fall:
Love can know no middle way:
If the great life do not call,
Then is sadness and decay.
Your tree of life put forth these flowers
In ages past away:
They had the love in other hours
I give to you to-day.
Do not ask for the hands of love or love's soft eyes:
They give less than love who give all, giving what wanes.
The blue dusk ran between the streets: my love was winged within my mind,
It left to-day and yesterday and thrice a thousand years behind.
I found
How deep the glance of love can wound,
How cruel pity is to hate.
I saw him pass from love to love; and yet the pure allowed His claim
To be the purest of the pure, thrice holy, stainless, without blame.
© 2020 Inspirational Stories
© 2020 Inspirational Stories